Dark Day
by BIFF1
Summary: It's Cassidy Casablancas' birthday and the two people closest to him are falling apart. She just wants to hide away from the world for the rest of the week, just drink and cry and be with someone who gets it and no one gets it more than Dick.
1. Guilt

**Chapter ONE: Guilt**

* * *

She had been so sure she was over this, over him. She had stopped going to therapy, she'd been able to sleep full nights without the help of medication, she'd finally lost her virginity to a very nice kind boy who had cared about her.

But people who are fine don't break into marinas.

She had contemplated breaking into Casa de Casablancas but what was the point of that, none of his things were there, everything had been packed up and the house sold to a couple from out of town totally unaware of who had lived there prior.

So she had gone to the marina, there was a boat here somewhere she had heard Dick mention, somewhere among all the extravagant pristine boats was another boat, equally extravagant, equally pristine, that Cassidy had bought for Dick as a graduation present, the boat Dick had packed all of Cassidy's things on.

So there she is at three in the morning on Cassidy's birthday searching out Dick's boat to break into...onto?

What she's going to do after that she has no idea, surround herself with Cassidy and just cry and cry until someone finds her? Maybe, she's already doing a good job of that, she's wearing the sweater he left in her car, the one she keeps at the back of her closet that she doesn't dare let Veronica know about.

It doesn't even smell like him anymore.

There it is. the Margaret. She doesn't know the significance of the name and she doesn't really care it was something between Cass and Dick. Maybe it was a family thing.

She pulls herself up onto the boat and makes for below deck. The door is open but she's not sure if that's weird or not, it's a boat not a car, some PCHer isn't going to sail the thing into a chop shop for christ sakes and there is a state of the art security system on the gates at the marina...that she easily bypassed.

There's music playing below deck and she's half afraid she's caught Dick trying to woo some girl but there's an odd vacancy to the boat...ship...vessel. There are a wide array of bottles on the kitchenette counter and table in various stages of empty. A single glass, filled with gin and promptly forgotten. There isn't a single scrap of evidence that Dick has company. No lipstick on any of the bottles, no extra cup, no purse or heel. And she's not all that surprised when she thinks about it because she doesn't really want any company today either.

But shit that's a lot of booze to drink alone and it's so quiet she should at least check on the only Casablancas heir left.

She pushes through the boxes that clutter the cabin towards the almost closed door at the far end. Her hands running over boxes marked clothes and awards and books. Pushing passed a life deconstructed.

She has a hand on the door and slowly pushes it open to see Dick sitting on the edge of the bed, crying into a sweater.

"Dick?" She asks quietly and his head shoots up his eyes wide and angry. The anger fades from him when he recognises who it is.

"Did Logan send you to find me?" He asks his voice thick and rough from crying for god knows how long.

"No," she decides that if anyone will appreciate what she's doing it's Dick, the only other person on the planet that misses Cassidy so badly it's broken them, "I broke in because you said Cass's stuff was here." She sits down on the bed next to him, "I didn't think anyone would be here."

That brings a short laugh out of him, he sets the sweater down next to him and looks at her, "I thought you were over this...him."

"Yeah me too." A noise bubbles out of her mouth and she's not sure if it's more laugh or cry. She falls backwards on the bed and covers her face with her sweater covered hands and she just let's a brand new bout of sobs over take her.

She stiffens when an arm falls across her middle. She can feel Dick on the bed next to her, his weight denting the bed. His arm wraps around her middle, his hot fingers on her hip as he pulls her back against him.

He doesn't say anything right away and she's glad for it because she's sure everything she could possibly have to say is stained with tears and longing and guilt. Because even knowing everything he's done, knowing he's a murderer and rapist, she still just wants him here and she's not sure that kind of guilt can ever go away.

It's been a year and a half since he'd jumped, wasn't this shit supposed to get easier.

She rolled in his loose grip and buried her head in his shirt. He smelt like him but at the same time he didn't. She's sure it must be something in his dna. She balls up her hands in his shirt and cries, his body shaking slightly around her and she knows she's not alone in her tears. There's something amazingly comforting in that.

Finally she is with someone that understands, because Cassidy may have been a lot of things, most of them bad, but he had also been loved.

Her hands loosen their grip on his shirt and slide around him, holding him to her. She's positive this is the first time they have actually made physical contact with each other and she wonders why they didn't do it more often because the smell and feel of him settles something in her, calms the ache in her like nothing else has.

They stay like that for hours, in fact she's pretty sure she falls a sleep at one point because the next time she opens her eyes a warm orange light is filtering it's way through the cabin.

He rolls away from her but she's still lying on his arm, his fingers still pressed firmly against her hip.

"He'd be so pissed at me." Dick tells the quite of the boat.

"What for?"

"You want me to pick just one thing?" He asks and he turns to look at her and she does the same and his eyes are red and puffy, his face red from crying and she's sure that she mirrors him.

She nods, just one thing, she's not sure she can handle the sheer weight of all his guilt, not on top of her own.

"Fine..." He closes his eyes tight trying to pick out just one thing. A sigh escapes his mouth before he speaks again, eyes still closed, "you."

"Me?"

"Yeah for being a total bitch to you."

"I already accepted your apology Dick."

He opens his eyes to look at her and his hand grabs onto her more, his fingers pushing the sweater away like he's desperate to touch her skin. She let's him, his fingers rest on her skin and burn and cool all at once.

Something about the way he's looking at her makes her think that he thinks Cass would be pissed at a little more than just him being a dick to her. There's something dark in his eyes and it brings to mind failed kisses and standing too close.

"Yeah..." He responds sliding her closer to him on the bed. And his eyes are so much like Cassidy's, there's a broken quality to them now and it hits her right in the chest.

Lying on that bed with one Casablancas is so much like being with the other that she's not sure what to do with herself.

Sometimes it still feels like she's alone in that hotel room, naked and shivering and trying to figure out what she did wrong. Cold and wrong in her skin.

"I thought I was over it, over him, but sometimes it feels like I'm still in that hotel room..." She looks at him wondering if he knows how exactly his brother had left her. He looks away from her pained and its obvious that he knows.

Logan must have told him because they had somehow managed to keep it out of the papers exactly what Cassidy Casablancas had left in his wake. Perhaps Dick had even asked. She has trouble imagining Logan just offering up that information.

"I'm afraid of hotel bathrooms." She tells him honestly and it pulls a laugh out of him, it rumbles in his chest and through her body and it pulls a small smile onto her face, "seriously I hold it every time I'm at the suite."

"You know we're not going to steal your clothes right?" Dick tells her his fingers in her hair. She pulls herself closer to him, removing all the space between them and Dick wraps his arms tightly around her small body as if he can protect her from the past.

"Is there any tequila left?" She asks quietly into his chest.

"Yeah hold on." His arms squeeze her briefly and she's sure that he leaves a kiss in her hair before he removes himself from her.

She feels cold without his body. She climbs up the bed and takes stock. The bed is wide and comfortable and there are plenty of blankets, she could easily hole up in here for the rest of the week. On all fours she opens the bedside drawer and finds a plethora of condoms and quickly snaps the drawer shut.

She has a boyfriend, she doesn't need that. Although the feel of his body against hers is so comforting...

She shakes her head to remove the thoughts and vivid images. The idea of finding out if he's really as good as he thinks.

"What's up?" Dick's voice comes from the bedroom door and she turns quickly to see him standing there with a bottle in one hand and a pair of shot glasses in the other.

"Nothing..." She settles back onto the bed and takes the bottle from Dick as he crawls up to her.

She wants to taste him...

"I'll be right back." She tells him quickly and basically runs out of the room. She grabs her purse on the way above deck.

She leans against the railing and pulls her phone out of her purse. She scrolls through the numbers for Max. She feels wrong having a boyfriend, being with Max when all she wants to do is loose herself in the company of another man.

It's almost 10 he should be up no problem.

He answers on the third ring.

"Hey Mackie, how goes it this fine morning?"

"I want to break up." She tells him quickly, hoping her voice is stern and rational sounding.

"What?!" Max chokes on the other end, "why? What did I do?"

"Nothing really..." Mac admits sinking down onto the deck and letting her legs hang over the edge, "I just..." She sighs and flops backwards onto the deck and closes her eyes against the morning sun, "I want to see other people. You are a really nice guy and I like you and all just..."

"Not enough?" He supplies and his voice is thick and she kinda feels like crap.

"Yeah. Maybe in a couple of months we can be friends. We probably should have tried that first."

There's a long silence on the other end of the line, "I never would have pegged you to break up with someone over the phone."

"Yeah well I'm on a boat right now."

"Your on a boat? Aren't you supposed to be at a film history lecture."

"Yep." She pops the 'p' and hangs up before he can say anything else.

She just lies there letting the sun beat down on her hoping that if she waits long enough this guilt will go away or at the very least lessen.

She can hear Dick lie down next to her. Feel his arm against hers. She can even smell him, the smell of booze trying to over take the crisp oceany smell of him.

She keeps her eyes closed. If he heard everything...oh god. Please let the ocean just swallow her now. Because if he heard that she wants to see other people it can't be that far of a jump for him to think that he's the people. Which is true...she just wants to loose herself in him consequence free, but she doesn't want him to know that.

"You just dumped the test dude?"

She nods.

"Why?"

"I just don't...he just doesn't get it." She opens her eyes to look at him and his face is closer than she thought it'd be, "I just want to hole up here for the week and drink and just be with someone who gets it..." It occurs to her a second too late that she's just told him she wants to spend the whole week with no one but him, in a boat with one bed and drink.

"We'll need to go into town to get some food." Is his response and a breath escapes her lungs she didn't know she was holding, "then once this hangover blows over we can set out."

"Out?"

"Yeah you think Ronnie's not going to come after you? We'll head down the coast, find a nice place to dock for the rest of the week."

he leans over and presses a kiss to her hairline before he disappears back below deck. She can feel her skin heat and burn, he knows he's people.

* * *

they fill up the kitchenette with cereal and soy milk and regular milk (because Dick isn't putting that crap in his body), vegetables and tofu and chicken, frozen pizza (some no cheese veggie abomination) and juice.

They don't need to stock up on alcohol because the cabinets are already packed. Dick has been pounding back Gatoraide in an effort to speed up his recovery.

And he manages to set sail just after two, he does all the work and she wears a life jacket that he threw at her.

She's sitting behind him as he steers them down the coast when her phone blasts through the comfortable quiet.

_private eyes...are watching you..._

He turns to look at her, "Veronica?"

"How'd you guess?" She smiles at him and looks hard at the phone trying to figure out if she wants to answer it.

She hits ignore and the comfortable silence returns, the sound of soft wind and the boat cutting through the water.

_private eyes...are watching you_

The song fills the air again and Mac looks down at her phone but its dark. Dick however pulls his phone from his back pocket and hands it to her. A smile on his face.

"You should answer it, throw her for a loop, tell her I took you to Vegas or something, Paris, Monte Carlo, whatever."

She considers it but hits ignore on his phone as well. She waits for the voice mail to flash before she goes into it, "This is Dick's phone, we will be in the city of lights, recreating select scenes from last tango in Paris. If it's important leave a message." She hangs up and hands Dick her phone.

"You sure you want to spend the whole week with me without chance of rescue?" He's voice is oddly solemn, serious and dark. She just nods.

"Hey, this is Mac's phone, she's unavailable as we've run away to Paris to get eloped, feel free to send wedding gifts to the presidential suite at the Neptune Grande." He finishes his message and hands it back to her, her eyes are wide and her cheeks hot with a flush that Dick seems to love inducing.

"Oh that's not going to cause problems at all."

He shrugs, "the boat could use a new blender."

* * *

A/N: Inspired by the fact that in Gilmore girls Luke Danes has a dark day, the day his father died, when he just disappears off the map. Stay tuned for chapter two when we see some frantic and worried Logan and Veronica.


	2. Worry

**Dark Days: Worry**

* * *

He hasn't seen Dick in three days and he is officially worried. Okay so he'd been properly worried for two and a half days but that's besides the point.

He keeps walking back across the suite and looking in his bedroom like he expects Dick to just magically appear while his back was turned or something.

It's Cassidy's birthday today and he keeps calling Dick and getting nothing, no ringing and the same message he's had for months, a vulgar thing about a sex hotline and it gets less and less funny as the days go on.

He's called the hospitals so often that as soon as the receptionist hears his voice she tells him that Mr. Casablancas has not been brought in, assuring him that he is still Dick's emergency contact and that he will be contacted if the boy comes in. They've stopped being nice to him and everything.

The sheriff's department won't look for him, saying that this little disappearing act is not a new thing for Dick and that he's sure to come back once he's good and ready, just like every time before this.

But Cassidy would have been seventeen today and he's positive that wherever Dick is he's falling apart and he just wants to be there for him, he wants to make sure that Dick who is his fucking family isn't falling off a cliff, or a building, or into a river or pulling a Bonham.

He doesn't want to have to identify yet another body, he wants to save this one. It's just too bad that Dick won't let him.

This is the worst it's been in a long time and he's deathly afraid that Dick is face down in a ditch too drunk to turn over, or dead, or getting into a fist fight with the wrong people, or fucking married again!

He calls Chip for the forth time and it goes straight to voicemail.

_It's Chip, leave a message and no Logan I haven't seen him._

He doesn't bother to leave a message.

Logan desperately want to think that this is unlike Dick, that he's not the type to just up and disappear but he's absolutely the type. He hadn't seen him for months after the funeral, Dick was absolutely the type to run away and hide from this shit. Hell he'd came back from grieving his brother with a tan.

Mexico was the closest place he could think Dick would run away to, Vegas again if he was drowning his sorrow in some slut who he'd just met, France if he wanted to get in a fight with his mother about Cassidy, Monte Carlo if he was in a gambling mood.

God he wished they weren't rich.

Maybe there was a clue somewhere, Dick was not a tidy room mate, surely he'd left something somewhere, a pamphlet for some club in the south of France, an invitation to a casino, god anything.

* * *

Veronica had been preparing herself for this all month. It's Cassidy's birthday and she knows Mac is going to need her. She's been compartmentalising Beaver, she finds it easiest to think of him as two separate people for Mac. Beaver the asshole murdering rapist and Cassidy Mac's troubled first love.

She's prepared.

Totally.

She's cleared her whole week for hangover recovery, she's got a full tank of gas if they need to leave town, she has an overnight bag packed, she has vegan snacks in the fridge.

She's totally absolutely prepared.

What she is not prepared for is a call just after two from Max.

"Whoa whoa calm down what's happened? Is Mac okay?"

"She dumped me."

"What?" She knew that Mac was getting kind of concerned about her relationship with Max what with him happily exiting Hearst early. But Mac hadn't said anything about the idea of ending it with him.

"She called me this morning and kicked me to the curb. She said she wanted to see other people. Do you think she cheated on me?"

"No way.".

Other people? What?! Surely Mac would have mentioned something, even in passing but the only guys she ever spoke about were teachers or related or basically related like Logan and Wallace...and of course Dick.

"She didn't even have the decency to look me in the face while she did it."

"What? Mac dumped you by phone? Better than text I guess."

"Yeah thanks." She can hear him roll his eyes. He hangs up on her and she can't really blame him for not being up to witty banter after being dumped seemingly out of the blue.

She can't believe that Mac would dump Max over the phone, after all she had broken up with Bronson in person and it hadn't gone that bad, sure she had felt a little like crap but there hadn't been a brawl or a scene or anything.

Mac's not answering her phone so she goes to the only person she knows who might have some insight on this whole _other people _thing.

The presidential suite at the Grand, a place she had sworn she wouldn't go ever again after the great Piznarski beatdown of 06. But Logan and Mac where friends and she trusted Logan's opinion on this matter more than Parker's after all she had s pretty good feeling that this break up had rather a lot to do with the fact that a certain dead boy would have been seventeen today.

Biting her lip she knocks on the door and waits for something to happen.

The door is ripped open in an instant, "where have you- oh Veronica." Logan's face fell but he stepped aside to let her into the suite.

Biting the insides of her mouth she forced herself across the threshold, "Where you robbed?" She asks looking around at the hotel room, it's been turned over, even the couch is on it's back.

"Dick's gone." Logan tells her softly and walks past her to once again look in Dick's bedroom as if the tall blonde would magically appear if he tried hard enough.

"That's not that weird thou is it?"

"He usually let's me know where he's going, or leaves a message, or calls me when he's there." Logan is pacing and she knows why he's so worried, the same reason she's been preparing all month.

Cassidy.

"Have you heard anything from Mac recently?" She asks distancing herself from Logan because the instinct to comfort him is too strong and she has her own bestie to worry about.

"No why?"

"She broke up with Max this morning," he shrugs like he's not surprised, "over the phone." She adds and he looks at her, "apparently she wanted to see _other people_. But I don't know anything about it."

"And you expect me to know more than the great Veronica Mars?" He asks and his tone is a little more acidic than she'd like.

"She's your friend too Logan."

"Yeah well I have more to worry about than Mac dumping that loser, Dick could be in a ditch or dead, or married again."

"Again?" She quirks an eyebrow, that is a story she wants to hear, who in there right mind would marry Dick? She pulls out her phone and calls Mac.

It rings twice then goes to voice mail like the call had been ignored.

"She didn't answer." She tells him when she looks up at Logan and finds him paused in his pacing, "I'll try Dick." It goes to voicemail, "it rang but went to voicemail."

"He actually has it on now!" Logan launches to the 'kitchen' counter and grabs his cell.

She pulls the couch back into its proper position and sits down heavily.

"Umm Veronica?" She twists in her seat to look at him, "I found Mac but you're not going to like it."

"What!"

He redials and hands the phone to her. Mac's voice rings out across the line, declaring that they are going to Paris together to...

"Recreate Last tango in Paris?!" She shudders at the thought.

"Try Mac again." Logan urges and she hangs up and redials from Logan's phone. It goes to voicemail and this time instead of Mac's sarcastic tones Dick's voice declares that they've gone to Paris to get married.

She looks up at Logan with wide eyes, and tries to keep the frantic worry out of her voice, "tell me about the time Dick got married?"

"Why?"

"Because Mac's voicemail is Dick telling me to send wedding gifts to the suite."

"What?" Logan grabs his phone and redials to listen for himself. It's Veronica's turn to pace the room.

"Would they actually do that?" She asks as Logan leaves a message to stop fucking around and call him because they're both making him prematurely gray.

"Dick would...but I don't know, Mac's in a weird place right now what with..."

The same word goes unspoken as it always does but it just hangs heavy in the air between them.

Cassidy.

"I'll call the hanger."

"Hanger?"

Logan shrugs, "we split a jet." Veronica sighs and slumps against the wall, rich people she's not sure she'll ever be used to it.

"What did the girl look like?" Logan asks into the phone and he grimaces and she knows that the description matches Mac, "thank you." He hangs up and looks at Veronica and she knows that face, that's the_ I have bad news_ face, she's seen it on him a thousand times before.

"It was Mac?"

"Yeah apparently the jet just got back. They must have gone in the night. I can find out which hotel there staying at thou. Maybe they haven't tied the knot yet."

"I just don't understand why they would do this." She whispers and Logan stops midstride.

"Really? I can."

Her gaze whips up to him and he looks oddly small surrounded by the debris of his search, "Pray tell."

"Mac wants someone who gets her, and that's not the animal loving vegan, or the hacker, those are parts sure but the big parts are the broken bits, the pieces with Casablancas finger prints all over them that connect everything else, and whose going to get that more than Dick?"

"And Dick?"

Logan smiles softly, "he just wants his family back and what girl in the world is going to understand his love for his villainous brother other than the only other person in the world who misses him."

"But Dick doesn't even like Mac."

Logan waves her logic away, "he's liked her all year." He dials a number and holds his hand up to stop the barrage of questions that's sure to create, "Bill, it's me Logan...yeah...not too great I think he's run off to Paris, could you find out which hotel he's staying at and let me know...yeah...thanks.". Logan hangs up and walks to his room to grab a coat.

"What's going on?" Veronica demands stamping her feet like a small child.

"Come on Bobcat." He smirks at her and takes her by the arm and starts to lead her out of the hotel room. She barely has a chance to grab her purse before there in the hall.

"Where are we going!"

"Well first were going to your apartment to get your passport and then we're going to Paris to either stop a wedding or to buy a really good wedding present."

* * *

**A/N:** There was only a little bit of Logan but I just really wanted to get him in there. Hope you liked it.


	3. Honesty

**Dark Days: Honesty**

* * *

Dick sails down the coast until it starts to get dark and moors the boat against a rock.

He's pretty pleased with himself.

Veronica and Logan won't be looking for them for a long while now. Seriously it's probably the smartest he's ever been.

Calling the hanger and telling them what they saw and where they went, calling Bill and telling him which hotel he's 'staying' at. He can't wait to tell Mac.

"Hey Mac-Attack." He yells out and she makes her appearance above deck. He looks at her sternly as she steps on deck.

"Oh come on Dick, we aren't even moving."

"The sea is a fickle mistress Mackie."

"Then you should wear one too." She grumbles as she pulls the life jacket over her head and begins to buckle it. She throws one at Dick as well and he can tell she's disappointed that he caught it rather than it just hitting him in the head.

She's looking at him with fire in her eyes and he sighs and pulls the floatation device over his head, "happy?"

"I'd be happier if I didn't have to wear this stupid thing." She puts a hand on her waist and her arm has to bow considerably for it to go around the jacket and the sight is just ridiculous.

"You can take it off when I see a boat safety cert, or some swimming certificates."

"Did you call me up here just so you could see me wear this stupid thing?" She asks and her tone is a burning acidic thing he's surprised to find he likes.

"No, it's just a perk." He smiles brightly and Mac moves to him to hit him lightly in the arm, "this good for you?" He asks pointing out at the horizon. He watches her face calm as she looks out at the softly rolling ocean, the sun melting into the water.

"Yeah...how far are we from home?" She asks and she must see that he flinches at the word home and corrects herself, "how far from Neptune?"

"Bout six hours or so."

"Is that far enough?" She looks up at him with worry in her eyes, "I mean won't Veronica and Logan find us pretty easily?"

"Not until after they get back from Paris."

"What?"

He let's her in on his little set up and she looks proud of him. So much for being the stupid brother. His smile falters at that. Cassidy. God he'd kill him for this, for running away with his girlfriend. But he left them, left her, surely she wasn't still his girlfriend now, she'd dated two people since then. He wondered if she still felt like his girlfriend, wondered just how deep Cassidy was buried in her. If she could ever really _be _with anyone else.

"That's great Dick." Her smile is soft and it doesn't take much to know she's thinking of him too. She seems to swallow something down before looking at him again and he's pretty sure it's tears, "you hungry?" He just shrugs in response, brushing a piece of hair away from her face. A blush is instant and he finds he enjoys the reaction, "I made dinner."

"You made me dinner?" He asks in shock as she turns away from the sunset to head below deck.

"Don't be too impressed or anything." She tells him as he follows her below deck.

She's moved a bunch of boxes away from the table and placed the fixings for soft taco's on the table.

A pair of semi slush margarita's are on the table.

"So you were totally right about the blender." She tells him sliding into the bench.

Dick nods as he sits down across from her, there is no meat on the table, but plenty of re-fried beans so he'll let it go, "maybe they'll be a new one at the suite when we get back." He smiles up at her and they start in on the first meal they've ever shared.

* * *

They are four margarita's in before Cassidy comes up and Dick can't help but wonder if maybe the memories are fuelled by tequila.

"Only time I've ever seen him drunk was off these girly slush margarita's" Dick laughs the memories of Cassidy completely sloshed swimming into focus.

"When?" She smiles trying to picture exactly what a drunk Cassidy would entail.

"Right after he broke up with you."

Her smile falters and she grabs at her cell phone.

"We were supposed to be celebrating him kicking you too the curb but all he'd talk about was you." He can remember the exact look on his face as he walked around the edge of the pool, his arms outstretched, a pink plastic cup in one hand, "_she's too god damn smart._ He said and he had this look on his face and I can remember wondering why he broke up with you at all when all he could talk about was how pretty and smart and funny you were."

Mac sets her phone in the centre of the table surrounded by half made taco's and puddles of tequila she presses a button and Cassidy's voice fills the room and it twists his stomach and his eyes burn.

"_Mac. Mackie. Mackenzie...Cindy. I like Cindy best, you should go by that more. Anyway I called you to tell you that I-_" a voice in the background breaks his train of thought and he knows for certain that the bark of laughter is his own, "_shut up I am not drunk dialling! I'm not drunk! It's just regular dialling! Shut up I am not!_" Cassidy's voice is full of drunken laughter, "_I have to go Dick just fell in the pool_." The voice mail cuts out and he looks up at her.

"You saved his drunk dial?"

"Yeah...I was going to use it as ammunition if we ever got back together...and even after everything I just... I couldn't get rid of it." She brushes at her eyes, "he sounded happy."

"God he was miserable after he broke up with you...god you should have seen what he did to the pool when he found out that Butters was taking you to prom."

"What'd he do?"

"He set it on fire. He stood there at the edge just throwing shit in until I had to pull him away from it and promise to make sure the weirdo didn't try anything with you. _If he touches her I'll kill him_...it had seemed like just an empty threat at the time." He can still see the look in Cassidy's eyes that blaze and boil of emotion he hadn't seen in him in such a long time and for a second he'd actually believed that Cassidy would kill Butters. Now after the fact he was certain Cass would have.

"But you barely even looked at me at Alternaprom." She must decide to gloss over Cassidy's murderous tendencies. After all the entire world likes to focus on them, they don't need to hide away for that.

"Yeah...I had a little _talk_ with Butters about the state of your date. It was pretty easy to get him alone since you'd been running away from him all night."

"You had a little 'talk' with my 'date'?" She air quotes and he finds himself smirking at her, a smile breaks out across her face, "thank you. God I could have killed Veronica, you know she basically sold me to Butters right?"

"Was there an auction? How was I not invited?" He snatches her hand and gently twists her arm so the soft underside of her forearm is exposed. She feels really way too good, like she should be a regulated substance, "it clearly says right here," he drags a finger along her skin and can feel his blood heat, "do not machine wash, for use by Casablancas' only."

"Casablancas'?" She looks up at him through her lashes and he has to try really hard to swallow because he's pretty sure that look could be labelled as seductive.

He drops her hand and gets up from the table, "how bout a good old fashioned game of I never?" He asks holding out a bottle of tequila and two shot glasses.

She might look disappointed but she covers it quickly by downing the last of her margarita and slapping the table top waiting for her glass.

He sits across from her and bites the inside of his mouth, it should be easier to not want to just jump her. She's Mac, she's wearing Cassidy's sweatshirt for Christ sakes but all he wants to do is sweep the table and devour her because she's broken in the same places as him and he can't help but think she'd be amazing.

Besides she had said she wanted to see other people...he was the people right?

"So you start?" She offers pouring the high quality tequila into his glass.

"Okay...I never..." He looks at her trying to judge where he should start, "made a sex tape." He tells her and tries to keep all the disappointment out of his voice.

Mac slams back her drink and he honest to god falls off the bench, "oh my god what? Where? When? With who? Seriously I'll pay." The flush on her face is all alcohol as she looks at him with a smirk.

"I'm not in it." She tells him firmly as he navigates his way back to his seat and refills her glass.

He points at her, "I'm going to want to know about that later."

She just smiles, "I've never...been married." The smile turns into a smirk and he just knows Logan's told her all about his flash in the pan marriage.

He slams his tequila, so she's going straight for things she knows he's done, fine, "I've never pulled an internet scam to pay for a car."

Drink.

"I've never made out with a transvestite."

Drink.

"I've never hacked into a secure hard drive using a super computer I wasn't supposed to have access to."

Drink.

"I've never streaked across campus."

Drink.

"I've never had a real relationship before."

She quirks her eyebrow at him but drinks without question.

"I've never been in a fist fight."

Drink.

"I've never been in love."

She looks at her shot glass for a long moment before she slides the liquid into her mouth.

"Max?" He can't help but ask and she shakes her head, "the animal guy?" She shakes her head again and the boat gets dead silent because there's really only one other option.

"I've never gotten over Cassidy."

Neither of them drink.

They look at each other for a brief moment before he reaches over to her phone and starts up the drunk dial. His little brother, forever 16, fills the room, fills up the space between them where he already lives and he's sure he's going to cry and when he looks up at her she's is crying. He moves to her side and wraps his arms around her.

"Maybe we should call it a night." He tells her and his voice is thick and even she must be able to tell that he's just barely holding it together because she just nods and let's him pull her towards the bedroom.

He turns down the bed and pulls off his shirt.

"I don't have anything to wear." She tells him staring at the bed with red eyes.

"The boxes." He points out the door to where all Cassidy's things are stacked up. She nods and leaves the room. He takes off his jeans and crawls into bed, it's not until a full five minutes later that he thinks it's taking too long to find something. Pushing himself out of the warmth of the bed he goes to the door.

She's sitting on the floor with a t-shirt to her face, her shoulders heaving with silent sobs.

"Mac..." He gets down onto the floor with her and he thinks he might just break apart, "what's the matter?"

She looks up at him, the shirt gripped tightly in her hands, "I'd forgotten what he smelt like." She tells him thickly, she picks at the sweater she's wearing, "it doesn't smell like him anymore." She tells him and it sounds like the saddest thing she's ever said.

He pulls the shirt out of her hands and inhales the smell, sea salt and a smell he was sure she didn't recognize as gun powder.

It's so horribly fitting.

He throws the shirt back into the open box and pulls her up into his arms and takes her back to the bedroom.

He's not sure he can stand it right now for her to smell like him.

"What are you? What am I going to wear?" He sets her on the bed and going around to what he's declared as his side her tosses his t-shirt at her.

She nods and he wonders if she really understands beyond the fact that if she smells like him they'll both just break beyond recognition.

He turns off the light and has to keep his back turned, his eyes closed and his teeth sunk into his cheek to keep from turning to watch her change. The sounds of the ruffle of clothing is almost unbearable but he manages to get through it and she slides into bed beside him.

He's certain this is the first time he's ever shared a bed with a girl without having sex with her and he hopes to god its the last.

* * *

A/N: So I'm back from vacation...obviously. I got some story stuff done while on the road and stuff so I should hopefully have some stuff up pretty soon. Please let me know how you like this chapter reviews really make me feel a lot better. little rays of sunlight throughout the day. LOVE


	4. Patience

**Dark days: Patience**

* * *

She basically ran off of the lear jet.

"Veronica!" Logan followed her reaching out and grabbing onto her arm to turn her back to him, "you didn't answer my question."

She looks down at his hand on her skin.

Ten hours minus a couple naps and they have talked about nothing else but his question.

She can't give him the answer he obviously wants. She sighs and watches as his hand slowly moves from hers.

"My answer is the exact same as it was when we got on the plane ten hours ago."

"Oh come on Veronica."

"No, no way would superman win in a fight with Batman."

"Come on!" Logan's arms are moving wildly, in a way she hasn't seen since pre high school. It's childlike and it warms her heart that after everything he's still capable of that, "he's Superman! Super is in the title, he is obviously superior."

She shakes her head and follows him to the airport, "Superman has a rigid set of rules, and Batman's pragmatic."

She honestly can't believe that Logan prefers Superman over Batman when he has so much more in common with the dark knight a flexible morality for one.

She would have rather talked about something other than the grand Superman v Batman debate of their childhood but it was better than spending ten hours sick to her stomach over the impending, possibly already tragic, union of their best friends. Personally she doesn't think that Logan is taking this seriously enough.

Then again his bestie would be getting the better end of the deal. Mac would be the one tied to an unstable jackass, what did Dick have to offer other than money? Something Mac could have all her own in a few years or a few keystrokes if she was feeling naughty.

She's getting worried again, their more then ten hours ahead of them, they could have gotten married the second they landed, they could already have moved onto drunken honeymoon and sight seeing.

"It's okay, it'll be okay Veronica, Mac's smart. Too smart to let anyone convince her of doing something she doesn't want."

"I know..." Its just that she's been distant recently and she's been worried and it looks like its been with good reason since she's fled the country with Dick Casablancas.

She follows Logan through customs and out to the other side where a town car is already waiting. Seriously travelling with rich people is something she could get used to. It had taken her a good twenty minutes to flag down a cab when she'd been in NYC, and she was pretty sure she had accidentally stolen some businessmen's cab.

Her leg is bouncing violently in the back of the car as Logan talks amicably with the taxi driver in French. Logan's hot hand goes to her knee and stills it, pressing into her skin firmly. It's a left over intimacy that heats up her skin. Back before Lily...back before her world had ripped apart this kind of thing was just a friendship thing. It warmed and calmed and brought about laughter and secret telling...but now, after everything, the laughter didn't want to bubble up in her, the heat and weight of his hand just seemed to ground everything.

She looked at her phone, no messages from Mac or even Dick. A message from Wallace and one from her father and another from Parker.

Parker and Wallace wanted to know why the hell Dick was on Mac's phone telling them that she was getting married. Her father wanted to know why she thought it was okay to leave a message like 'went to Paris to stop Mac from marrying Dick' and thought that didn't warrant a phone call and he hoped to god she meant Paris Texas.

She'd call with answers as soon as she laid eyes on Mac and not a second before. They would all forgive her, she couldn't forgive herself if she let Mac go through with whatever crazy plan she had going.

Marrying one did not erase the acts of the other. Having Dick love her, need her, want her, was not the same as hearing it from Cassidy. It wouldn't give her the closure she so obviously needed.

* * *

She has to admit that the hotel room is absolutely fabulous but she sits heavily on the white and French blue couch, a couch she is positive cost more that her car, because after all the confidence talk they went through to get into the presidential suite it is completely empty. Absolutely devoid of life save for the fabulously fresh cut flowers.

"They aren't here." she sighs and watches as Logan goes through the desk for some sort of clue.

"Yeah...but they've been here. look." he tosses a bunch of papers at her and she fumbles a bit but only one manages to fall to the floor.

It's all in French.

She looks at Logan and hopes she is properly portraying how very _not_ funny he is being. He knows her French is limited to dirty song lyrics and _where's the bathroom_.

"And what pray tell are these?"

He takes them from her and his sigh is not missed and not appreciated.

"It's their legal documents."

"and..."

"They aren't even notarized and they are missing a couple of documents."

"Why exactly do you know so much about what you need to get married in Paris?" she can't help but asking, even though she is trying to focus on the Mac/Dick problem it's pretty hard to stop that tightening in her chest at the thought that he had done actual research to get actual honest to god real married.

That's a lot of paper in his hands and apparently not all of it, which means that this thing isn't a spur of the moment drunken Vegas wedding, this is the kind of thing that's premeditated that has forethought.

Mac had been distant for a month tops there was no way that she had started having an affair with Dick in that time and had decided to get married, like good and proper forever and ever married.

"Lily wanted to get married here." He tells her quietly and the whisper of her name settles all the whirling thoughts in her brain.

Lily.

She grabs hold of Logan's hand, pushing her fingers through his and they sit in silence because they have to come back for the these papers if they want to get married. They just have to wait it out. She can do that. She can be patient. After all it's not nearly as uncomfortable waiting here in the presidential suite of the Paris Four Seasons then her piece of shit car with her telephoto lens stuck to her eye.

* * *

**A/N: **just a little shortie about Logan and Veronica's great european adventure. Not sure how long they'll last in the patience department, neither have really struck me as very calm and patient. Next up is Mac. The Mac and Dick chapters will probably end up being longer just because I feel I have more to say with them than Logan/Veronica. Please don't forget to tell me how much you love me. More love means quicker chapters!


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